Portfolio Versions

Take a look at my Web Development History,See how I have come along

.Current PortfolioVersion 3.0.

The current portfolio created from a bootstrap theme, clean. I redesigned my portfolio as I wanted a fully responsive experience for users. I also found that as I started adding more and more projects to the Version 2.0 portfolio it became a long scrolling site that users had to repeat to see another project. I was getting fustrated by this, so I didn't want to pass on this experience. I was reluctant to move to a theme as I wanted to show off my HTML & CSS skills, however I believe I have portrayed these further in the development of this version, (3.0). From the development of this site I have expanded into a new area, Bootstrap, improving on my editing of themes. I have pulled apart and edited this theme to suit my brand and taken sections of code to create pages for each of my projects. This was something that was a must in my eyes, I wanted to be able to show off each project in its full worth rather than just an image and breif description. From the index page I was able to take parts of code and build it up to a project page, approximately 90% of the project pages are self code. Creating a full css stylesheet in order to give the project pages a suitable styling. I also expanded into Javascript for the first time to create a series of buttons that change text and images on click. In all this version of my portfolio has expaned further my skills of HTML, CSS & Javascript. Ultimately creating an all round better user experience with deeper project information.

Version 2.0

I wanted a much cleaner look to my portfolio, ultimately creating something that was easier to use and navigate through. A big part of the development for me was that the entire piece be hand coded, this to show my skills of HTML, CSS and PHP. As a result of this I didn't want to take to themes of any kind. I got alot of help from w3schools & stackoverflow, as well as from a book entilted HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites by Jon Duckett. I wanted a responsive website and this proved to be the biggest challenge for me, and because of this limited my design of the website.

I went for a look of a large project header followed by a description with a button to the project page. This was proving to be a pain to update when adding in new projects. However I did learn alot of HTML & CSS from creating this project, for example how to create a Sticky Nav that was responsive. This was very much a learn the web project for me as well, how to create file structures that are simply and easy to navigate through, creating downloads for pdf files within the structure. Also learning how to code in a direct email and telephone launch from links, as well as opening links in new tabs and removing the drag function from images. The website also has links to the various social media accounts I am available on.

Version 1.0

My early days of web development, with very little knowledge of HTML, CSS & PHP, I challanged myself to code from scratch and all by hand my very first portfolio. I went for a vertical scrolling site, with navigation jumping the user to parts of the page. My projects featured in picture frames on a brick wall, as if they were hung in a studio. Each project coming with its own web page, featuring a project title, video if it had one, a breif description and a series of images, again in picture frames. This was followed by a statement from a tutor on the project and a comment section. This meant a php form for each project page. This one of my main challanges, getting my first ever form to send to my email address, and a valuable skill I have learnt and took on to other web projects.

This website had many issues, the biggest been its responsiveness, this was none existant. In an all round way, I was very proud of this development at the time, but it became short lived and served as a basis for Version 2.0 of the portfolio, alot of the code learnt here was taken into the build of the next iteration of the site.